Whether it exists or not, I don't know. Paul was a difficult person in the academic world
because he got into trouble with the department at Columbia, and Bob Lynd got in touch
with me because he wanted me to come up and try to help Paul with some of the people in
the department. And I think I have a letter in my files some place I ran across a couple of
years ago. It was a handwritten note from Bob Lynd thanking me for what I had done to
save Paul at Columbia. You had to learn to like him, he was not an easy person to --

Q:

Do you recall what the dispute was at Columbia?

Stanton:

Well, it didn't involve sex, I know that. But I believe he had trampled the research
or the writings of somebody in the department, I expect justifiably but I don't know. It's too
dim, in the past. I played more of a role of a character witness and tried to persuade the
department to forgive Paul for what they were holding against him. It wasn't for any misuse
of data or anything of that kind. It was something in his personal behavior. He could offend
a lot of people. And yet he'd charm the birds out of the trees at the same time in the same
group. He was -- even as I talk, at this point -- I'm of two minds because I know that in my
own personal life he created problems for me with Ruth. So I tried to separate his personal
characteristics, his disrespect for commitments and things, that I tried to put aside and say,
You've got to see the bigger picture. That's not easy for a lot of people to do -- and Cantril
never could. Because by the time -- shortly after Newark -- Cantril was pretty much out of
the picture. And I tried to keep Cantril abreast of the association, and Paul perhaps because
I was a pushover, he seemed to favor me as between Had and me. Embarrassed me at times,
but Had couldn't take it.

Q:

Well, Paul Lazarsfeld must have been very fascinated by the data you were compiling at